I. Field
The following disclosure relates generally to wireless communication and, more specifically, to secure registration of femto access points.
II. Background
Historically, telephonic communications (i.e. land lines) have been enabled using circuit switching infrastructure operated by phone companies. In contrast, mobile telephonic systems (i.e. mobile phones) have been enabled using packet switching infrastructure operated by mobile operators companies. As mobile telephonic communications have been deployed, such mobile telephonic communication systems are using the packet switching infrastructure for edge communications and the circuit switching infrastructure to complete long haul telephone calls. As mobile communication systems become more and more prevalent and mobile communication systems serve to provide more and more services (e.g. multimedia functions, sophisticated voice functions, video conferencing, etc.), usage is trending toward more and more functions suited to the packet switching infrastructure. Also, more and more equipment that connects to packet switching networks is being deployed; for example, femto cells, including user-deployed femto cells. Concurrently, more and more services (e.g. multimedia services, low-cost long distance calling, etc.) are being enabled using relatively more and more packet switching network infrastructure (e.g. the Internet and other IP-based networks).
This trend creates an environment where more and more of the infrastructure is deployed under control of entities other than the telephone system operators, thus new issues of security (e.g. secure registration of the aforementioned femto cells) come to the fore.